Catching up! My first Art Fair and inside Cloud Nine Studios!

              Hello Everyone! What a busy little bee I have been lately. I am grateful to have a second to breathe now and catch you all up on how my first art fair went! The Fair was from Friday-Sunday. Friday morning was set up from 9am-11am but when I got there they were still mopping the event space! We ended up only having about an hour and a half for set up which made me STRESS big time. When the event started it was like a ghost town. Friday I went home with $6 in sales. 

I felt very defeated.

Saturday came and I showed up with a positive attitude ready to hustle my stuff! I rearranged my booth a little to help the flow of traffic enter easier and I lowered my prices to see if it made some difference. Thankfully, the amount of people walking around was amazing! I was starting to see which things people were consistently drawn to in my booth and what was selling and not. I left Saturday with breaking even for the fair. I was happy with my decisions and feeling more confident about my work and space. 

Sunday rolled around and going into the day I was already even for the weekend. So anything that I sold was profit. This made it a little easier for me to let go of pieces for an even lower price. At first I was stubborn in my pricing but then I realized I can just make more of them and the more I sold the better I would feel about my first show. The traffic was a little slower again on Sunday but I end up about $100 plus for the weekend. 

(Mikaela and her homemade dog treats)

For my first fair I am extremely proud. My goal was to at least break even and get some great experience and advertising and I ended up in sales. I now know what people are interested in and what works for displaying my pieces and what doesn't work. Selling online is very different then selling in person. I had used a lot of strategies that I would for selling online at first at the fair and quickly realized the differences!

I was able to meet some great artists and people walking through. I handed out a TON of businesses cards and have some possible commissions that I am hoping will follow up! I am so grateful for all the help that my boyfriend George was able to do for me. I am so lucky to have someone who fully supports me and is always there if I need him. Also a HUGE thank you to my room mate Jessica for taking time out of her day off the help me set up! She really kept me in check when I wanted to break down before it even all started. 

My goal this week is to update my Etsy shop and list everything that I photographed before the show so if people decide to find me from my business card that everything is looking up to date and professional! I have a lot of work ahead of me but I feel only good vibes from the whole experience.....except for the parking ticket I got trying to unload my car! Oops. Oh well! 

Click here for my ETSY SHOP!

I should be back on schedule for the blogs now! Be sure to check out my Etsy for all the new items and updates! Also be sure to click the subscribe button on the top right of this page if you liked this blog and want more!

Until Tomorrow - Dream Away

Samantha Menzo

Cloud Nine Studios

Etsy Featured Item of the Day:

Recycled Sweater Coat- 2XL by - LauraAnnLyon

Song of the Day:

U2 - Beautiful Day

Color of the Day:

Little Angel

My inner Girly Girl and "Embracing the Pink."

Hello Everyone! I am in such an inspired and motivated mood today. I spent most of the last few days locked inside my studio trying to get as much done as I can and I really am hearing that clock tick with the DIY Art Fair right around the corner. I was able to finish up so many half done pieces and that was so gratifying. I also was able to take a good chunk of the day to prepping more wine bottles. I soaked them and peeled the labels and then took them outside to spray some base colors on them and I can't wait to get back and knock some cute new wine bottles out! 

So yesterday I was on Facebook scrolling along when I came across a video that caught my eye. I clicked on it and was instantly hooked. It is Lil' Fairy Doors and my inner child was squealing with delight! I was so excited over this little pink door that I had to take a step back and look at exactly why I was so giddy!

(My brother and I fishing as little kids :] Happy Birthday Zachary!)

So I began to think about how I was raised with a tom-boy sporty spice kinda attitude. I loved my cut off jean shorts and bandannas. I loved showing up the neighborhood boys in any sport I could and after a certain age I made it by business to HATE pink. I even convinced myself that the thought of pink made me mad. Why? 

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When I started playing disc golf around 2 years ago, I had a disc that was my favorite to use but it was pink. I was the best at throwing that particular disc and slowly I grew fond of the color. I had a connection with it and a positive one. Slowly I started wanting more pink discs. Then I wanted pink shirts, then a pink bag, until I slowly was EMBRACING THE PINK!

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I realized a connection with this transformation after listening to part of Gretchen Rubin's - The Happiness Project. She wrote about how for so long she suppressed her love for children's literature. She wanted to be known for reading intelligent books and not fairy tales. She figured out what she was doing one day and decided to ditch the thought and embrace her love for children's literature and she started a small book club dedicated to it! 

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I was suppressing my inner Girly Girl. I wanted people to think I was tough, and cultured and intelligent and somehow me liking pink went against that notion. So i decided to start my own book club......well not really. I just decided that I loved pink and girly girl things. When I saw the Lil' Fairy Door I wanted one so badly. I made me think about my art pieces that I create in my studio. 

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I have mentioned making "sell-able art" vs "enjoyable art." I have struggling with this thought lately because of trying to prepare for this Art Fair. I have found myself knocking out so much generic sell-able art just to make sure I have inventory and it's not as enjoyable for me. When the fair is over I have decided to dedicate a chunk of my time creating fun and light girly pieces. I still love my rustic pieces on wood and wine bottles but I am missing something and it's all for my inner Girly Girl!

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So I hope you all enjoyed the blog today and remember to embrace any and everything you love in life because we all want the real you! I will be Periscoping in my studio tonight at 7pm Eastern Standard Time if any of you are interested in joining me you can find me @Cloudninestudios. 

Until Tomorrow - Dream Away

Samantha Menzo

Cloud Nine Studios

Etsy Featured Item of the Day:

Pink donut watercolor PAINTING rainbow sprinkles (fine art print realistic food doughnut girly pastel art nursery dessert kitchen decor) by - ASheaDesignLab

Song of the Day:

Beyonce - Run the World (Girls)

Color of the Day:

Coral

What's new in the world of Cloud Nine Studios?

It's me again! I have a lot of things to cover today and I am all over the place, so let's just dive in shall we! Today I have been working hard on posting the Michigan Greeting Cards I have recently mentioned in a past blog on my Etsy Shop. It is a lot of work to post new items. This will be the first time I am posting Greeting Cards to my shop so I wanted to do some research on the normal listings of successful cards first. I found some of the cutest greeting cards! Here are some of my favorites!

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Making my Michigan Greeting Cards was just a spur of the moment idea I had to have smaller items and less priced items in my inventory for the DIY Art Festival at the end of the month. I had so much fun making them and now I am super inspired seeing all the wonderful cards on Etsy. Anytime I make any product even if it's sold, I try and take pictures of it and post it on my Etsy shop. If it is sold, then I post it on a made to order basis. The more images and listings you have in your shop the more chances to get noticed and create a sale!

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Also today I am getting ready to meet with my Artists Talking Art Group for the second time! I am not expecting many people as I have been so busy in the studio I admit I have been lacking on the posts about it reminding people to come. Either way even if I have one person show up I will get some relaxing time to drink some tea and talk about art. Can't complain about that!

**Cue adorable tea cup picture!

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Isn't this cute? Tomorrow's blog is going to be dedicated to collecting things. You'll get to read about why I love a good collection and how it can inspire us and increase happiness. Which reminds me of my next thought I want to mention today....weekly dream color scheme. I have so many dreams that I am always wanting to share but I have no reason to. The blog I did about creating color schemes from memories had such great responses, that I thought I would dedicate one day of the week of this blog specifically for a dream that I had where I will describe it in as much detail as I can and create a color scheme that goes with it. So FRIDAYS will not be dedicated to my weekly dream inspired color scheme. Any clever names I can use for the title? 

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Told you I was all over the place today! Still with me? Great, you are the best. :]

I have so many ideas for the blog that the more feedback I get the easier it is for me to post what you all want to read about! Is there anything that you would love to hear me touch on? Let me know in the comments below and help this happy little art blog bloom into a beautiful flower of happy goodness! 

Until Tomorrow - Dream Away

Samantha Menzo

Cloud Nine Studios

Etsy Featured Item of the Day:

Hummingbird Rustic Hand Printed Wrapping Paper - Three Sheets by - HandmadeandHeritage

Song of the Day:

Alle Farben - She Moves feat. Graham Candy

Color of the Day:

Split Pea Green

DIY - PAINT BRUSH CLEANER (Made with hot glue gun)

It has been a weird couple of days but also an AMAZING couple of days. My love took me away for a night to the west side of Michigan with another couple. We stayed in an amazing castle and saw my favorite band Lake Street Dive. It was a magical two days and I felt very inspired and in love.

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Since I have been away all weekend I wanted to use my last day off to really get things done in my studio. I entered the room this morning and felt SO OVERWHELMED. There were things everywhere. I have started so many pieces and each are different mediums. I just couldn't get my thoughts together so I decided it was time to clean and reorganize everything.

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I started by getting all the random trash out and creating more space. I felt cramped and anxious and now I feel free! I had also been putting off cleaning a ton of my brushes that were just sitting in old mineral spirits. I was actually convinced I had ruined all of them because they had been sitting there for so long. I remembered this great idea I saw and decided to make one of my own!

I understand that this video was made for make-up brushes but it works the same for paintbrushes. I made one on a metal tray that I had left lying around. It works so well I wish I had more brushes to clean. I not only saved every single brush I don't think they have ever been this clean. It took maybe ten minutes to make and if you are an artist with deals with paintbrushes of any kind I DEFINITELY recommend making one of these.

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ANYWAY! Now that everything is clean and has a place I am going to organize my inventory on paper which is something I have never done before. I want to do this because like I already mentioned I keep starting all these little pieces for the DIY Art Fair but not finishing them and I feel all over the place. I want to know exactly what I have and how many of each so I can focus on what I want to have for the fair. I know as of now that I probably need to at least DOUBLE my inventory which is terrifying but I know if I can just get my thoughts straight I will make it happen.

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Before I left for the weekend adventure I did however finish my lovely little Alice in Wonderland inspired Watercolor piece! Sometimes I make pieces and I think "oh, that's cute.....moving on" but every now and again I make something I love and it might be vain but I CAN NOT stop looking at it. I really want to make more pieces like this and get prints to sell but I feel like I need to stick with what I can do for the fair for now and after this month dive a little deeper into my watercolor ideas.

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So that's all I have for today. I really want to get to work in here now that it's cleaned up but I wanted to make sure I blogged since I couldn't while I was away. I hope you all have a wonderland day!

Until Tomorrow - Dream Away

Samantha Menzo

Cloud Nine Studios

Etsy Featured Item of the Day:

USB flash drive 8 GB, kawaii blue cat, cat with constellation big dipper, back to school , cobalt cat usb flash by - CloverPower

Song of the Day:

Garden Sessions: Lake Street Dive - "Look At What Mistake" - Radio Woodstock

Color of the Day:

 BENJAMIN MOORE CORLSBUD CANYON 076

Thinking about participating in an art fair?

        It's an early night for me tonight as I lay in bed rest for some sleep. I want to make sure I'm really rested to wake up tomorrow and be fully ready for my day ahead, so today might be a shorter blog since I'm feeling the sandman already trying to wisk me away. 

         I have an opportunity at the end of next month to participate in an outdoor art fair that is very DIY friendly, in fact it's encouraged. I have never been apart of an art fair and am apprehensive and motivated at the same time.      

     Being apart of an art fair can be very rewarding if you have a great booth with great products in a great location; so long as it doesn't rain out or have poor attendance. I have always felt that the type of art I produce would sell really well at a fair.

           Any artist thinking about doing a fair needs to take in account that you have to take off work all weekend. So you want to try and make at least as much as you would at your normal job to make it worth it. Also there is normally a booth fee to just be there as an artist and sell work. So if you think your inventory of work can sell more than the time you might take off and to pay off your booth fee then you are off to a great start!

 

Another thing to think about is the networking opportunities that an art fair provides. So maybe you don't make quite enough to break even for the weekend like you thought. The contacts you made with the other artists or people walking in the fair,  might pay off triple that in the long run! That alone makes a strong agreement to why it's always a great idea to do an art fair if possible. 

            I have been to many art fairs and some I've had some money in my pocket I was willing to spend and other times I have had little to nothing,  but I've always seemed to walk away with at least one item. When setting up inventory for an art fair I think it is extremely important to make sure you have a wide variety of different priced items. If you bring all large and high priced pieces you may bomb because the people walking around only have $20 in their pocket and they want to spend it but can take on your pieces because you only brought your best and most expensive work. So think variety in size and price.

         My current inventory is a decent size and when I get home after this week if I decide to go in on  this fair I will really start turning out some work to make sure I have a sizable stock. Anyone have some pointers they can give me that I haven't already covered? Is anyone thinking about doing their first art fair too but don't know where to start?

                                        Until tomorrow - Dream Away 
                                                 Samantha Menzo 
                                               Cloud Nine Studios